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Fusion energy: Progress, partnerships, and the path to deployment
Over the past decade, fusion energy has moved decisively from scientific aspiration toward a credible pathway to a new energy technology. Thanks to long-term federal support, we have significantly advanced our fundamental understanding of plasma physics—the behavior of the superheated gases at the heart of fusion devices. This knowledge will enable the creation and control of fusion fuel under conditions required for future power plants. Our progress is exemplified by breakthroughs at the National Ignition Facility and the Joint European Torus.
Zoran Dragojlovic, Farrokh Najmabadi
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 47 | Number 4 | May 2005 | Pages 1152-1159
Technical Paper | Fusion Energy - Inertial Fusion Technology | doi.org/10.13182/FST05-A842
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The rep rate of an inertial fusion energy facility depends on the time-dependent response of the chamber environment between target ignitions. The fusion burn following the target ignition releases large quantities of energy into the chamber. This energy should be removed and the environment should be returned to a quiescent state so that the new fusion target can be positioned for the next cycle. Understanding the hydrodynamic transport of this energy through the chamber fill gas is essential because the multidimensional geometry effects become important on the long time scale, as the fluid interacts with the vessel wall containing various beam access ports. This interaction affects several different modes of the chamber species transport, including convection induced by shock waves and secondary flow, molecular diffusion, electron conductivity and radiation. In order to investigate these phenomena, we have developed SPARTAN code as an assembly of algorithms that were the most suitable for an accurate treatment of the computational problem, such as shock wave resolution and tracking, underlying flow physics and complex wall geometry. This study demonstrates that the geometry effects are critical in affecting the flow during the first 50 milliseconds following the target ignition. Thermal diffusion by molecules and free electrons has only a moderate effect in reducing the temperature extrema and is not sufficient to cool down the chamber to the equilibrium with the chamber wall within 100 ms. Radiation of the background plasma was identified as the only transport mechanism that has approached to this goal, making the chamber environment more suitable for inserting the next target.